‘Scream’ Recap: In The Trenches

After several weeks of no deaths, the gruesome death in “In the Trenches,” proved that the peaceful weeks were way too good to be true.

The morning after Will was dragged away by the murderer, we an unknowing Emma having a nice talk with her mother. Maggie tells Emma she’s glad that they talked. Emma questions how her mother deals with her past, and Maggie answers simply, “you learn to live with it.” Once Emma starts asking why her dad still left, Maggie justifies his actions by saying, “Not everyone learns to live with it.”

Did Emma’s dad carry more guilt? What would the reason be for it? Hmm….

Although Emma tells her mother that her and Kieran are just friends, Emma rushes to school for a make out sesh and to figure out if it’s weird that they’re hooking up while their parents are also dating. Emma’s receives a text from Will and despite not knowing that he is possibly dead, still finds it strange when he says he tried to make things right, but failed.

Emma goes directly to Brooke and Jake, who are still weird about Mayor Maddox. Brooke admits to Jake that her dad went out the night before, was sulky when he returned, and that she had a bad feeling. When Emma tells them about the text Will sent, Jake puts it together that something could have happened with Brooke’s dad. So as Emma gets filled in on the blackmailing situation, who should show up but Piper!

Piper takes the group to the warehouse she and Will had gone to meet Mayor Maddox, and my first thought ia, “WHY DIDN’T YOU CALL THE COPS.” Because, obviously. Piper tells Emma about the previous nights events, and that the murderer tried to kill her, but Will saved her life, as she leads Emma to a lovely note the killer left. In what looks like blood, the wall reads, “NO COPS EMMA.” (Oh).

The group leaves Emma behind after Piper complains about her concussion. Just then, Emma gets one of her favorite phone calls from, the killer. Emma begs the killer not to hurt Will, but the mysterious masked person tells her, “New game, hide and seek. Just like Daisy and Brandon used to play.” Emma thinks she has the upper hand since her mother supposedly told her all about her past. But the killer scoffs, “Your mom’s a lying whore. In time you’ll know the truth, but first you better find Will.”

Meanwhile, Brooke goes to her dad to confront him about seeing Will the night before. She lays it all out, demanding to know where her mother is and that she knows all about the video and blackmailing. Mayor Maddox sticks to his story that his wife is in rehab and that “what [she] saw isn’t what it looks like and [they’re] not discussing this anymore.”

The mayor insists he has no idea where Will is, but the creepy smirk painted on his face makes us think otherwise. He only seems to lose his composure after Brooke says that the truth will inevitably some out, and that won’t protect him.

Emma goes to Noah to help track Will’s phone. Once the two locate the phone to a bowling alley, Jake and Brooke sign up to help find their friend. Emma asks Kieran to cover for her, to tell their parents, whom they were apparently having a weird double date with, that she was going to Audrey’s to help her study.

The foursome split up to search the perimeter of the building. Noah and Emma discuss the killers motives. Noah, being the genius he is, tells Emma, “He’s playing chess instead of checkers… He’s making you responsible for who live and dies.” Until Emma figures out who the killer is, he’s going to keep upping the game.

Jake admits his suspicions about Noah being the killer to Brooke. Jake says it’s always an unexpected person, the funny, nice, smart guy. Brooke teases, “Well that takes you off the table.” Jake responds with, “Or does it?” Didn’t think I could hate Jake more, but there is nothing slightly redeeming about him.

During the search, Kieran has dinner with Maggie and Sheriff Hudson. Apparently, detective Brock is off the case, probably for questioning a minor without a parent or lawyer present. Maggie asks Kieran if he likes Lakewood, and he snarkily replies, “Yeah, you know, aside from all the murders, its nice.” After Maggie insists on calling Emma to make her get to the dinner, Kieran jumps up and offers to go pick her up from Audrey’s.

The “Will Search Party” enters the bowling alley, and Jake almost immediately insists on splitting up. “Said no one who survived a horror movie, ever,” Noah quickly responds. And really, he has a major point. Have you heard of strength in numbers? Apparently not, because Jake and Brooke split off again.

Noah then brings up how off Jake’s story about Will was. If Jake suspected Will was going to meet Mayor Maddox, why wouldn’t he try to stop it?

After failed attempts to get with Brooke, Jake inches too close to her and corners her against a door while revealing he knows about her and Mr. Branson. He stabs the door next to her head with one of the many weapons he brought for protection, but quickly ducks out to pee, and leaves Brooke alone. Because killers have a sixth sense about when girls are alone, the killer in Brandon James’ mask begins to chase her.

Emma and Noah finally find Will, but he’s unconscious. While Emma tries to get Will to wake up, Audrey calls. Noah tries to tell Audrey what’s going on, but the connection is bad. Will suddenly wakes up.

After complaining about back pain, Emma lifts his shirt to find he’s branded with “B4.” She quickly realizes that it must lead to something. She finds a drawer labeled with the same “B4″ and finds Brandon James’ time card and a tape of Emma’s dad called “PTSD project.” PTSD, like post traumatic stress? Does Emma’s dad suffer from it, or Brandon James?

“Daisy” song starts playing and Emma runs out to find somewhere to play the tape. She finds a tape player and hears her dad saying, “How could she sleep with that monster?”

Brooke finds Jake with a knife in him, and her first thought is to pull it out. Emma hears Jake scream in agony, and goes after him, but is met with killer. Despite having a huge stab wound, Will tackles the killer to the ground. Just then the cops show up, thanks to Audrey’s clever thought to go straight to Emma’s house after hearing Noah’s frantic voice.

Kieran shows up too, after supposedly hearing what was going on on the police scanner. As much as I don’t want the hot guy to be involved, why is Kieran so suspicious? (To be fair, 98% of the cast is currently acting suspicious).

The cops have a hard time finding the killer and one states the obvious, “People don’t just disappear into thin air.” They don’t, so was the killer among the group the whole time? Was someone missing when the cops showed? Yeah, Noah was.

Everyone gets out of the warehouse, with just Jake and Will wounded. Emma gets reprimanded by her mom and Sheriff Hudson for not going to the cops.

Kieran also confronts Emma, but about more than just her safety. He realizes that Emma obviously still has feelings for Will. Emma admits that feelings don’t just go away. As he leaves, Emma asks him if he’s mad. “No, I just know what I want,” he responds with the saddest face ever which makes me forget that he was ever on my suspect list.

Noah tells Audrey that he thinks Jake and Will were behind the entire scene at the bowling alley to convince everyone to trust them, which sounds like a reasonable theory until the last minute of the episode.

Will calls Emma and invites her over to watch a movie– which is clearly going to be a set up by the murderer. But Emma apparently decides to forgive Will after his heroic move and rushes to his house. Upon her arrival, she is greeted with a phone call from the murder. He tells her, “I wanted you to have a little pride, instead you forgave his lies just like Daisy did all those years ago. I don’t forgive so easily.” He doesn’t forgive Emma so easily? Does that mean the murderer is someone that’s in love with Emma, the way Brandon was in love with Daisy? Emma starts running to find Will. She trips over a string, which is triggered to drop a chainsaw/tractor thing (sorry, I don’t know power tools). Sitting tied up in front of said tool is Will.

And he’s dead.

TOP SUSPECT: I’m still convinced the murderer isn’t part of the main crew. Piper is still fishy.NEXT TO DIE: Brooke. Just a weird hunch.